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Do we even have any outfielders in AA who anyone would consider a prospect? Danny Mars needs to learn to hit AA pitching. Maybe Cole Sturgeon, who is off to a great start. But even Sturgeon, who turns 27 in September, is hardly prospect material and might be lucky to be a fourth outfielder in MLB...

While true, that also involves knowing: 1. Porcello would emerge as a Cy Young-caliber pitcher. While I always liked Porcello, his 2016 was completely unforeseen by anyone except maybe his mom. 2. Chris Sale would become available. There was really no reason for the White Sox to blow up what was actually a good team, with Sale being the centerpiece in terms of not only talent but also trade value. Rick Hahn did a great job identifying and locking up premier talents like Sale, Quintana and Eaton to insanely affordable deals that, coupled with players like Abreu, Robertson, and a few other notables, formed a cheap nucleus that was already controlled affordably long-term. I have always suspected Sale's public tantrums prior to the 2017 season lead to an availability that never should have been there. I can easily believe Price was going to be attainable, given how high Dombrowski was clearly willing to go to get him. But without the emergence of Porcello and the sudden unexpected availability of Sale, was the plan to rely solely on Price to upgrade the starting pitching?

I think you're both right here. Castillo's salary would have very serious luxury tax implications, and Dombrowski went to the see Castillo's audition and reportedly left with the impression Rusney was a fourth outfielder. I see Castillo as a better version of Jarrod Dyson. Dyson received a 2 yr $7.5mill contract this past off-season. Castillo is owed $23mill for the same two seasons, and assuming he doesn't opt out after 2019 (an extremely slim chance), another $14mill for 2020. So he will likely get $30mill more than Dyson with only one season more of control. He might be better than Dyson, but not THAT much better...

Johnny Mize remains the only player in MLB history to hit 50 home runs and strike out less than 50 times in the same season (1947, 51 HRs, 42K). With 11HRs and 13 strike outs through 30 games, Betts is on pace to come close. Not that I care if he strikes out 70 times...

I doubt any combination of Margot, Asuaje, Allen of Guerra was going to replace Moncada, who was the clear headliner in that trade. My biggest gripe was the Sox gave up an awful lot to get a closer, when we were a last place team with much bigger needs...

Cities/Towns in Massachusetts Tim Wakefield Daryl Boston Jon Leicester (not the same pitcher as Jon Lester, but he counts, too) Amos Otis

It is true it did more to prove you can't just simply fill your bullpen with retreads and pitchers who failed to make the rotation. You do need good pitchers in the bullpenand as many as possible. These guys are going to pitch close to 40% of the IP over the season. Closers were popular among managers because they reduced doubt and made for easy press conferences, and popular with GMs because they were relatively cheap compared to starters. But last off-season, Wade Davis signed a contract worth almost 80% annually of what Darvish and Arrieta were making. The dedicated closer is moving rapidly into luxury, and it never really was a necessity. Ideally, I'd rather see a "high leverage" guy who comes in and puts out a key fire in the seventh and eighth. However, if that specialty ever caught on, it too would become very overpriced. But over the course of a season it should lead to more wins. To me, there is nothing sillier than watching the lesser arms struggle with the top and/or heart of the order in the seventh and eighth innings, hoping they can get through so the Sox can get to the closer. I'd rather see him in there when i find myself hoping on the setup guys too much...

And this is always the type of things people say in defense of closers. Not wanTing a closer doesn't mean avoiding pitchers like Kimbrel and Rivera. It means not using thsn add ninth inning specialIsts. If Rivera was in the Yankee pen all those years but somEone else was getting saves, how fewer rings would he have?

They didn't use Motte until very late. Other pitchers, including Mitchell Boggs and Octavio Dotel, handled the role for them. Ryan Franklin was the closer on opening day, but faltered right out of the gate...

Gee thanks lol The "committee" was largely Chad Fox, who got all the save chances. Fox was an ok reliever who had some bad games in Boston, but was largely the fall guy for an ineffective bullpen. He did go on to get a World Series ring with Florida that year. The rest of the bullpen struggled. During the 54 games before Byung-Yun Kim was acquired, Fox blew only three 9th inning leads, resulting in two losses. The real struggles for that pen were in the sixth through eighth innings, normally not the role for a closer. That the Sox struggled where the game was really on the line in earlier innings was the exact logic for using a committee. The problem wasn't a lack of defined roles as they had those. The problem was too many ineffective pitchers handling key situations. The true best pitcher from that committee turned out to be Timlin, but he didn't emerge as a force until the post-season, where he was unhittable. Of the committee pitchers, it was no surprise he was the only one the Sox kept re-signing...

Also bear in mind in the 2004 World Series, thr Sox had the lead in every single inning (with one exception). It was probably the most one-sided world series in history. Hard to argue Foulke put them over the top...

Please don't make me explain again why the Committee thing is often mistaken, misremembered, and proved the exact point about why it was formed in the first place

Yes they are. But if he plays well, he is moveable. And if he plays well in MLB, it is possible (although not likely) the entire contract becomes moveable

And who are you willing to let go to bring back Kimbrel? If he wants $19mill, does that mean no more Porcello or Pomeranz? Does it interfere with Sale or Bogaerts or Betts?

Does it fit Dombrowski's narrative? He's the only one who matters..

It does make me wonder - if closers are so important and great closers can make a huge difference, why is Mariano Rivera the only member of the 400 save club to win a World Series? These guys clearly played for teams that won a lot of games. (Ok, technically Fernando Rodriguez won a WS in 2002 and was very instrumental in the win. But he was also not the closer. Troy Percival was.) 400 save club - the non-Rivera members played 89 seasons. One title. Zero titles as closer. Of course that number does double if we include the next man on the list in Dennis Eckersley and his 390 saves with one title...

Well, Springer was driving the ball all over the place...

What is so wrong with "wins later on"? Are they lesser wins? You are correct that not all blown saves are losses. But then you ignore this later and call them "lock down wins". Why do you ignore this suddenly?

They could bring him up, pay the luxury tax, and maybe see if he can play well enough at the right level that he could be viable trade bait, possibly even a piece you don't pay other teams to take off your hands. ..

He's 26, has no real position he can defend well, and is sporting an OPS+ of 5. Trade bait? He'll be lucky if he isn't flat out DFA'd.

"Can't make a difference" or "don't make a difference? I think they do, but how quantifiable it is another matter...

And that's why managers get paid a million dollars while you and I watch games and criticize his decisions for free..

It's not a disconnect. Certain situations in games are more critical than others. While many fans (and sportswriters) like to believe the ninth inning are the most critical, it's not always the case. The advanced metrics suggest deploying the best reliever in the game situation with the highest Win Probability. Because while most situations may matter very little, this is ideally the one the most...

Kimbrel is very talented. But I think most players out there believe they can and want every chance to do his job. I do doubt the Sox are able to keep Kimbrel. Dombrowski has already made multiple efforts to acquire his successor. Smith hasn't impressed anyone yet, but is very good. Thornburg has yet to pitch and hopefully is over his issues soon.